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‘Hopper Drawing’

‘Hopper Drawing’

At first glance, the scenes of domestic life depicted by the American painter Edward Hopper and the British writer Roald Dahl appear relentlessly quiet and uneventful. It’s only upon closer examination that an unsettling, ambiguous gloominess starts to seep in around the edges, hinting at a much darker vision than we’d originally imagined.

Both Hopper and Dahl knock us off balance by peeling away the veneer of domestic tranquillity and inviting us to question what ugly truths are simmering beneath. How well can we ever really know someone, including our loved ones? What causes people in relationships to close themselves off from the world and each other?

In this Text to Text lesson plan, we put a Hopper painting, “Room in New York,” together with a related Times review, "A Master, Between the Lines," and the macabre short story by Dahl, “Lamb to the Slaughter.”

These texts ask us to plumb the depths of loneliness and isolation, and to consider how the disconnect in our personal relationships might sometimes reflect larger divisions in the world beyond our homes.

If memes were a thing when Edward Hopper was alive, many of the subjects in his paintings probably would have passed this one around on their social media accounts: “I used to think the worst thing in life is to end up alone. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel alone.”

In a 2000 review, Grace Glueck described Hopper as a “master of loneliness” whose barren landscapes, silent interiors, and pensive figures convey “a haunting emptiness.” The desolation becomes most unsettling in those pieces that depict ostensibly intimate situations; Hopper veils his couples’ expressions from us and one another with his indistinct brush strokes and moody shadows.

Edward Hopper suggests rather than conveys, and his characteristic restraint compels us to rifle through the oppressive ambiguity for unspoken truths or hidden secrets. In Roberta Smith’s review of ‘Hopper Drawing’ at the Whitney, she explains how viewers want “to get behind the curtain of Hopper’s stillness and figure out what’s going on,” which explains why countless artists, filmmakers, and writers have been riffing on Hopper’s work for years.

It is also what makes Hopper so appealing in a high school E.L.A. classroom. Integrating any art into literacy instruction is easy because it so effectively proves to students that the more they look, the more they see — an essential point that is less easily made with written text. Hopper’s work in particular is a gold mine for readers who need to practice inferencing, because the truths are whispered, not shouted, and students really need to lean in to hear them.

To model for students the process of intertwining visual art and storytelling, we pair Hopper’s “Room in New York” (1932) with Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter.” Dahl’s juxtaposition of domestic banality with an unforeseen act of violence is pure Hopper, and students love it.

For one thing, they don’t have to look too far to recognize the many inter-textual connections. Like Hopper’s “Room in New York” couple, Dahl’s characters are in a relationship that is both insufferably claustrophobic and deeply disengaged. Hopper’s couple could have modeled for Dahl’s twisted tale of vengeance. Readers don’t see any of it coming, and neither do the characters.

Both pieces poke at what simmers beneath the placid surface of ordinary lives, and what they unearth is darkly disturbing. How well can we really know the people with whom we share our lives? What secrets are they concealing from us? If familiarity breeds contempt, as these two texts suggest, is being alone really the worst thing? Maybe not, if the alternative is living with someone who decides to smash your head in with a slab of frozen meat.

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Key Questions:

• What causes people to close themselves off from the world and each other?

Activity Sheets: As students read and discuss, they might take notes using one or more of the three graphic organizers (PDFs) we have created for our Text to Text feature, which matches often-taught texts with Times articles and other content.

There’s not much action in the art of Edward Hopper, who revealed the American soul by freezing and monumentalizing the American scene. His paintings give quiet moments of everyday life an Egyptian stillness; they are fixed in an eternal present, shorn of superfluous detail, rendered as if carved in stone. Their blocky immobility is part of their psychological weight.

In Hopper’s work it is emotion, not motion, that counts, the feelings that roil beneath the surfaces of his images. These are conveyed but not explicit in the figures; the isolated buildings and houses; the offices, coffee shops and bedrooms; the empty roads and deserted gas stations; the honeyed annunciating light and the very atmosphere. And then there are the feelings the images arouse in us.

Sometimes it seems that Hopper (1882-1967) could have eternized almost any undistinguished moment of introspection or inaction in anyone’s life. That’s why his paintings can make us wonder about the opportunities for consciousness and revelation we have been blind to in ourselves. It is also why we strive to get behind the curtain of Hopper’s stillness and figure out what’s going on.

He had now become absolutely motionless, and he kept his head down so that the light from the lamp beside him fell across the upper part of his face, leaving the chin and mouth in shadow. She noticed there was a little muscle moving near the corner of his left eye.

“This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, I’m afraid,” he said. “But I’ve thought about it a good deal and I’ve decided the only thing to do is tell you right away. I hope you won’t blame me too much.”

And he told her. It didn’t take long, four or five minutes at most, and she sat very still through it all, watching him with a kind of dazed horror as he went further and further away from her with each word.

“So there it is,” he added. “And I know it’s kind of a bad time to be telling you, but there simply wasn’t any other way. Of course I’ll give you money and see you’re looked after. But there needn’t really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn’t be very good for my job.”

Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all. It occurred to her that perhaps he hadn’t even spoken, that she herself had imagined the whole thing. Maybe, if she went about her business and acted as though she hadn’t been listening, then later, when she sort of woke up again, she might find none of it had ever happened.

“I’ll get the supper,” she managed to whisper, and this time he didn’t stop her.

When she walked across the room she couldn’t feel her feet touching the floor. She couldn’t feel anything at all — except a slight nausea and a desire to vomit. Everything was automatic now — down the steps to the cellar, the light switch, the deep freeze, the hand inside the cabinet taking hold of the first object it met. She lifted it out, and looked at it. It was wrapped in paper, so she took off the paper and looked at it again.

A leg of lamb.

All right then, they would have lamb for supper. She carried it upstairs, holding the thin bone-end of it with both her hands, and as she went through the living-room, she saw him standing over by the window with his back to her, and she stopped.

At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head.

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For Writing and Discussion

1. In what ways do the texts reinforce stereotypical gender roles? In what ways do they defy them?

2. Do the artists appear to be supporting or criticizing these stereotypes? Do you believe one gender is portrayed more sympathetically? Explain.

3. With whom do you identify most in both the painting? The story? Are we meant to sympathize with Mrs. Maloney or be horrified by her, or somewhere in between? What about Mr. Maloney? Does the way Hopper depicts the figures in “Room in New York” make them more or less appealing to you? Discuss how each artist uses point of view to add meaning to his text.

4. Why do you suppose Dahl doesn’t provide a definitive cause for the breakdown in the Maloney’s relationship? And why would Hopper obscure the facial expressions of the figures in his paintings? Do these omissions make the texts more or less satisfying to you as a reader? Why?

5. Both texts depict intimate relationships at varying stages of disintegration. In what ways might these unhappy couples suggest broader sociological commentary about divisions in the world beyond our homes?

6. Does the Times review help you to understand Hopper and what he is trying to convey? What lines from the review apply especially well to “Room in New York”? How? Do any of them also apply to “Lamb to the Slaughter”?

Going Further

Loneliness and Social Isolation as Themes:

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Hopper Drawing Edward Hopper’s “Early Sunday Morning” (1930), on his easel at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Related Article: A Master, Between the LinesCredit
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Both Hopper and Dahl created work that depicts the emotional toll of social alienation and estrangement. The following articles discuss the considerable impact isolation can have on physical health at all stages of life.

Then, invite them to think about how art conveys emotion, the way Hopper, the “master of loneliness,” conveys a sense of isolation. Have students click through the slide show from the ‘Hopper Drawing’ exhibit, at the top of this post, and describe what specific features suggest this to them. What do these paintings add to their discussion about loneliness? What is the distinction between loneliness and solitude? Is it possible to live a fulfilling life completely alone? Why or why not?

Then, challenge students to make some art of their own — inspired by the Dahl story or one of Hopper’s paintings. Students can create poetry, drama, song lyrics, video, or use any other genre of creative expression. To help, teachers may want to use these two assignment worksheets (both Word documents):

Few would argue that technology has transformed our social interactions and behaviors in profound ways. Though it is creating new opportunities as well as shrinking boundaries and facilitating relationships, at what costs have we embraced the digital revolution?

Have students look around on the subway, at the park, or in just about any public space. How many people have their faces buried in their electronic devices, oblivious to everyone and everything around them?

After reading “Lamb to the Slaughter,” one wonders if Patrick Maloney’s palpable disdain for his wife’s compulsive desperation to serve him ultimately prompted her murderous rage. And in Hopper’s “Room in New York,” the male figure’s imperviousness toward his lonely female companion is similarly painful to witness.

Students might read one or both of the pieces suggested below, and answer the related questions.

1. In an Times Op-Ed entitled “Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded,” published a few days before the 2016 presidential election, the Dalai Lama argues that “we all need to be needed,” and that “the more we are one with the rest of humanity, the better we feel.” Though he concedes that our political leaders have a particular responsibility to ensure more compassionate, inclusive societies, he stresses that on a personal level, we can all satisfy “the universal human hunger to be needed.”

•In what simple, practical ways can you behave more inclusively or compassionately in your own daily interactions with others?

•When passing a casual acquaintance in a school hall, or when locking eyes with a stranger on the subway, what is your typical reaction? Do you quickly look away, bury your face in your phone, or do you smile and say hello?

• For one day, can you adjust your responses to better align with the advice given by the Dalai Lama, and record any differences you experience in your mood or state of mind as a result? What conclusions can you draw about how consciously connecting with others affects your own emotional well being?

• Use your own data to formally respond to the following prompt: Do you believe it is more effective to enact social change on a personal level through your own choices and daily interactions with others, or via large-scale social and political activism, such as the recent Women’s Marches?

2. In “Lamb to the Slaughter,” Mary Maloney dotes on her husband. This can be interpreted as alternately nurturing and solicitous, or cloying and suffocating, a dynamic often replicated between parents and their adolescent children.

A scene from “The Killers,” a 1946 film noir directed by Robert Siodmak and based in part on the Ernest Hemingway novel of the same name. Google Images. Related Article

Students can study these interconnected texts to better understand how artists and writers speak to each other across genres and time periods, and to discuss what about “Nighthawks” makes it so universal and iconic.

Though he died in 1967, Hopper’s moody ambiguity and unspoken truths continue to beckon artists, writers, and musicians to this day. Here are a few of the many examples:

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Art at the Edward Hopper House Art Center includes “Marion St. Burn,” a mixed-media piece by Tony Oursler. Related ArticleCredit
Tony Oursler

In 2013, internationally renown multimedia artist Tony Oursler staged a site-specific art installation at Hopper's childhood home in Nyack, N.Y., where he once broke in as a child when it was unoccupied and in disrepair.

In 2008, the University of Maryland and the National Gallery of Art in Washington jointly produced a one-act opera inspired by five Hopper paintings called "Later the Same Evening.” Included in the show are the dysfunctional couple depicted in “Room in New York.”

Inspired by a 2004 retrospective of Hopper’s work in Europe, Austrian filmmaker Gustav Deutsch transformed 13 Hopper paintings into a live-action, feature-length film in 2014 called “Shirley, Visions of Reality.”

Shirley Visions of Reality - Official TrailerVideo by EASTWESTTUBE

Invite your students to find more examples, in The Times and elsewhere.

Finally, you might invite students to craft their own fictional narratives inspired by one of his pieces. This construct has been replicated often, with the latest iteration released in December 2016: In "In Sunlight or in Shadow" is an anthology of Hopper-inspired short stories written by authors such as Joyce Carol Oates and Stephen King. What stories might your students write?